


A Little Sand Hurt Everybody

by CastielFollowMe



Series: Single Dad Shiro Verse [16]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Beaches, Fluff, Gen, Keith hates sand, Protective Shiro (Voltron), SO MUCH FLUFF, fun in the sun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 12:34:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11532336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CastielFollowMe/pseuds/CastielFollowMe
Summary: Shiro takes Keith to the beach, where much of his childhood was spent, hoping that Keith could experience the same magic he had growing up.





	A Little Sand Hurt Everybody

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "Hello!! I was reading your Single dad Shiro au in the beach when it come to my mind: how was Keith's first time in the beach?! I really wanna read a prompt about baby Keith in the beach with his daddy. I hope you read this!"

               Shiro was more than a bit excited today. In fact, he was rather ecstatic about the day to come. He hadn’t been able to sleep much the night before out of excitement, and his car had been packed for about three days now. That didn’t stop Shiro from checking his car every day though, just to be sure that he would have everything.

               Today was the day that Shiro was finally going to bring Keith to the beach.

               The beach was a special place for Shiro and almost like a second home. Back in Japan, he and his parents had lived along the shores of the beaches for as long as Shiro could remember. His childhood had been full of days exploring the sand and shallow pools, while swimming in the ocean on the weekends with his parents. The beach was always going to be a part of Shiro.

               However, after moving from Japan, Shiro had found a home away from the beach but within ten minutes of the beach. He was hesitant to take Keith to the beach for the past three years, and admittedly, he had been petrified of anything happening to Keith at the beach. _What if a tide pulled him out to the ocean? What if he swallows a lot of water? What if he cuts himself on a shell? What if a crab pinches his poor cheeks?_ Unfortunately, these worried thoughts had prevented Shiro from taking Keith to the beach for three years, and while Shiro deeply missed the beach, his love for Keith was stronger.

               Thankfully, with some helpful persuading from his mom and dad, Shiro felt ready to take his son to the beach. So that Keith could experience the same love of beaches that Shiro had grown up with.

               Today Shiro and Keith would explore the beach alone together, and they would meet up with Shiro’s parents tomorrow and Shiro couldn’t wait.

               Shiro hummed happily as he finished preparing breakfast, before bounding up to Keith’s bedroom. Still smiling, Shiro opened the door and laughed upon seeing Keith alright standing upright in his little bed. Upon seeing his father, Keith’s little face lit up and a gummy smile overcame his face. He still didn’t speak at all, but he would make small excited noises, like the sounds of a bird chirping.

               “Hi there Keith!” Shiro smiled as he scooped up Keith into his arms and gently rested him against his shoulder. Keith beamed, slapping his hands against Shiro’s chest while lying up against his father.

               “Are you excited for today?” Shiro asked as he left Keith’s bedroom to head downstairs for breakfast. Of course, Keith didn’t answer but he occasionally would coo, causing Shiro to laugh. “I bet you are. You know, daddy is super excited,” Keith bounced in Shiro’s arms upon hearing this. “Yeah he is. Daddy loves the beach, and the beaches are a bit warmer here than they were in Japan, but daddy grew up on the beach. I can’t wait for you to see and experience the beach. I promise it’ll be so much fun.”

               Once Keith was settled into his highchair with a bowl of food in front of him, Shiro also sat down to eat. He was probably more excited about today than Keith was, and it was proven by how quickly Shiro shoveled down his food. This seemed to highly amuse Keith, who stared at his daddy in awe; his own food was left forgotten.

               “Come on honey, we got to eat every bite.” Shiro laughed before helping to spoon Keith’s breakfast into his mouth. “You need to grow big and strong and make sure you eat your whole breakfast, no matter how excited daddy is to leave.” Keith was always slow when he ate, eating slow and deliberate bites as he looked around the room curiously. It was as if Keith had _never_ been in the kitchen before and he was exploring it for the first time ever, despite eating three meals a day in here. However, Shiro never grew impatient or angry at his son and could always be seen smiling at Keith.

               “There we go. That’s my boy!” Shiro praised as he scooped a bit of food off Keith’s chin and into Keith’s mouth. The bowl was empty and Keith’s tummy was full. Shiro couldn’t help but pull Keith into his arms and cuddle their noses together with pride. “That’s a sweet and wonderful boy!” Keith snuffled against Shiro and rubbed his nose rapidly against Shiro.

               “Are you ready to go out to the beach?!” Shiro asked excitedly. He didn’t wait for an answer from Keith, knowing there wouldn’t be one, and set out to dress Keith for his special day at the beach.

               Shiro hoped everything would go as planned.

x.V.x

               Upon arriving at the beach, Shiro saw how crowded it was and he wasn’t surprised. The weather had been perfect the last few days, for people to spend at the beaches. This particular beach was less popular than the others and significantly less crowded, however, that didn’t mean a lot of people weren’t here.

               Thankfully, Shiro could park right next to the beach and water, in an area that was less crowded than anywhere else. It was closer to the small pools and rocks with caves, but there was just enough room on the sand to lay out an umbrella and some towels.

               Keith was the first item out of Shiro’s car. Shiro cooed once more at Keith’s little outfit and snapped a couple dozen more pictures of his son before pulling him out of the car seat.

               Keith was wearing a pair or red swim trunks with itty, bitty lions printed all over them. He had a long black sleeve shirt on, that was meant for the beach meaning it was lightweight, breathable and waterproof. It would keep Keith’s pale skin protected from the sun, since he was much paler than Shiro. His legs, face, arms and everywhere else had been lathered with sunscreen (which Keith had protested _very_ loudly until Shiro had calmed him down with cuddles). There was also a large round sunhat over Keith’s head to protect his face even further. Shiro had tried to dress Keith in several hats, not willing to leave the house without one until Keith had one on, but Keith was a great fuss the whole time. Any hat with strings or ties around them were immediately taken off when Keith would _sob_ and tug at the strings. The baseball caps were better but Keith kept touching the backs where the buckles or buttons were. Eventually, Shiro had settled for a sunhat, that his mom had bought Keith, with a red ribbon around the center. He was aware the hat probably looked feminine, but he didn’t care one bit because Keith’s face was protected _and_ he looked downright adorable in it.

               Shiro even wore a matching hat with a black ribbon.

               Keith’s arms flailed in excitement when his father picked him up. Immediately, Shiro grinned and rubbed their noses together just as Keith tried to grab Shiro’s sunglasses. Quickly, Shiro grabbed those tiny hands away from his sunglasses and pressed butterfly kisses to them. Keith giggled to himself and allowed himself to get settled into a carrier around Shiro’s chest. His legs were dangling and twitching as he maneuvered his head to look around at the unfamiliar place.

               Shiro had to moved his own head several times to avoid getting hit in the chin by Keith’s hard little head (he’d been there, done that, and would rather not do it again), and it took more than the usual one trip to get everything to their spot on the beach. Life with a toddler was certainly much more work than alone. Shiro vaguely could remember his parents having to lug everything to the beach while he was running around, screaming and playing and he mentally put in a note to apologize for his youthful behavior.

               Thankfully it only took about 3 trips to get everything settled, and everyone else didn’t mind them or bother them. No one took any of their stuff and Shiro was eternally thankfully.

               Once the umbrella was set up, the beach towel spread and the chairs positioned, he finally took Keith out of his carrier and plopped the three-year-old onto the towel. Keith’s eyes were wide as he tugged himself to his feet to explore the soft towel and everything that Shiro had brought, while Shiro triple checked their sunscreen.

               Keith continuously grabbed at the umbrella pole and tried to pull himself onto the chairs, all while Shiro was laughing and giving his help when needed. _So far, so good._

               Shiro looked over at the ocean, upon hearing children laughing in the water and waves crashing onto the shore. He smiled, lost in thought at memories of his childhood, when he felt a tug on his swim trunks.

               Looking down, Shiro cooed upon seeing Keith staring up at him with his big, beautiful blue eyes and chubby cheeks. His hat was pushed back, almost falling off his head and luckily Shiro caught it before it could fall and secured it back onto Keith.

               “Hey buddy, do you want to see the ocean? Huh? Yeah, we’re close enough that we should be okay if we leave our stuff.” Shiro said quietly, stroking Keith’s cheeks. Instantly, Keith snuggled his cheeks into Shiro’s hands smiling at the touch and Shiro beamed. “No one will take our stuff. Let’s head over to the water.”

               Shiro made sure that Keith had his little water shoes on (because _damn_ was that sand hot) before putting on his own sandals. Then he began to head towards the water. Feeling the sand, Shiro noted that it wasn’t too hot yet, probably because it was so early, and decided that Keith might want to explore the sand a bit first.

               Upon first stepping onto the sand, Keith was perfectly fine and walked beside Shiro, however when Shiro had set Keith down to sit in the sand to have, was when the screaming started.

               Keith had let loose an unholy, loud and demanding _shriek_ and his screams continued while Shiro gawked. He quickly snatched Keith out of the sand, fearing that Keith had accidentally sat on a crab or a shell, or _glass._ Shiro’s stomach churned at the thought of his poor baby’s day ruined by some glass in the sand. However, upon lifting Keith up, Shiro couldn’t find anything wrong with the sand at all.

               He checked once more to make sure it wasn’t too hot (it wasn’t) but Keith continued to shriek. Shiro tried shushing Keith and bouncing him gently. All the while, he brushed off Keith’s legs in case there was anything stuck to him and the sand.

               Once Keith was entirely cleaned off, his screams dissolved into pitiful sniffles and Shiro could breathe a sigh of relief. _Why had he started crying?_ Shiro frowned, rubbing his chin while Keith cuddled up to him and he sighed. He had hoped it was just a fluke.

               Ever so gently, Shiro set Keith back down but the moment his legs touched the sand his screams had started back up again at full volume. As if he had been burned, Shiro pulled Keith off the sand and walked them back towards their towel as he rubbed Keith off.

               Once more when Keith was clean, the screaming stopped and Shiro frowned.

               Carefully, he sat Keith down on their towel holding his breath. Though, he was pleasantly surprised when Keith didn’t open his mouth at all. In fact, his tears had practically dried and he was rubbing his hands all over the fluffy towel.

               Blinking, Shiro looked back at the sand and sighed in realization.

               “Goodness, you don’t like sand. Do you?” Shiro asked, receiving no answer from Keith except for a happy coo. “Why didn’t I realize this? You hate weird textures like that. Oh goodness baby, daddy is a mess.” Shiro rubbed his face tiredly and sat down, earning a happy squeak from his son. Keith pushed himself onto his feet as he attempted to climb onto Shiro and Shiro couldn’t help but smile.

               _This wasn’t exactly what I had hoped for. I wanted Keith to experience that same magic as I had going to the beach, but he must be miserable. How could I do this to Keith?_ Shiro frowned sadly and he was angry with himself for doing this to Keith. Shiro though that Keith couldn’t have fun at a beach if he hated sand, but the longer he sat on the beach, the more he realized that Keith _was_ happy.

               He was very happy.

               Maybe Keith didn’t need sand to be happy. This was enough for Shiro.

               Shiro laughed at his son, before helping the toddler onto his lap and snapping a couple of selfies with Keith. He pulled out the cooler and quietly fed Keith his snack. Both father and son were content with one another on their towel, listening to the sounds of the ocean and laughter. _This was good enough for me. As long as Keith’s happy._

               Eventually, Shiro’s parents showed up and while they were surprised, neither one of them were angry at Keith’s hatred for the sand. In fact, they both were even _more_ adamant than Shiro about keeping the sand away from Keith.

               All in all it was a splendid time and Shiro could see himself and Keith here for many more times after this. It was even better when Shiro could hold Keith securely in his arm and bring him to the water for Keith to experience. Of course, he didn’t let Keith walk on his own because Keith would have _freaked_ at feeling the wet sand under the water. But he would hold Keith in the water, just high enough to keep him from touching the sand while Keith gaped and flapped in the water. He even sat down so that he and Keith were both partially underwater, allowing Keith to feeling the ocean.

               He smiled when Keith would grin back at him in his arms and slap the water, before splashing a small bit of water at the toddler. Of course, Keith squeaked and jumped at the sudden splash before slapping a handful of water at Shiro. This ensured a teeny, tiny, baby water fight to happen, full of smiles of laughter from daddy and son. And at the end of the day, Shiro was content to watch the sunset with his son dozing in his arms, and his family surrounding him.

               It wasn’t quite the day he had been expecting.

               It was even better.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on my Voltron Big Bang so this series was put on hold and I was so sad T-T. Life is too busy.


End file.
